[Ubuntu] Resizing an Exfat Partition

[Nick H. Supervisor]

Hi all,

I've got a 2TB external hard drive that I formatted to Exfat. Now I want to create a new partition that will allow me to install Ubuntu, rather than just running it off my USB key. The problem is that Gparted doesn't recognise the Exfat filesystem so it won't allow me to resize the current partition, only format it. I don't want to do this because there is already data on the HDD.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I've thought about moving all the data from the external and putting it on another drive temporarily while I format it, but that would be quite a long process so I'd prefer not to if I can help it.

[Azies]

I highly doubt that GParted has the ability to safely read/write to ExFat, these instructions should enable at least reading the drive, it's complicated, but hey, welcome to Linux.

Installing and mounting

To install ExFat support in Ubuntu, pull up a console (?Applications > Accessories > Terminal?) and run:

sudo -s

apt-add-repository ppa:relan/exfat

apt-get install fuse-exfat

The driver uses the FUSE (filesystem in userspace) framework. For it to work, FUSE needs to be enabled in the kernel. If you use the stock Ubuntu kernels then this is the default, so you don't have to do anything else. If you roll your own drill down to ?Filesystems > FUSE? and either compile it in statically or enable it as a 'M'odule, then compile and install your kernel.

While available as a module, Ubuntu won't know to automatically use the driver when you insert an exFAT device. For now you'll need to manually mount the device and specify the exFAT filesystem. Plug in your device and run:

cat /proc/partitions

Chances are your USB device will be the last partition listed. You can also check by looking at its size and seeing if it matches the size of your USB key.

Next make a temporary directory where you can mount the device. Ubuntu by default attaches removable media under the /media directory, so you might as well do the same. Enter the following:

cd /media

sudo -s

mkdir usbdrive

mount -t exfat /dev/sdd1 usbdrive

The drive will appear on your desktop, and you can read and write to it like any other. To safely unmount it before removing, use 'sudo umount usbdrive' from the same directory.

[Nick H. Supervisor]

I highly doubt that GParted has the ability to safely read/write to ExFat, these instructions should enable at least reading the drive, it's complicated, but hey, welcome to Linux.

Thanks, but I've already got exfat support on Ubuntu using almost identical instructions to the ones that you've provided. It doesn't seem to have allowed Gparted to modify the HDD though.